1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a SDH or SONET telecommunication network element and to a method for managing such an element.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Every telecommunication network can be seen as a set of network elements (electronic and/or optical apparatus) intercommunicating through electrical, optical or radio connections.
The telecommunication network providers are willing to purchase and install flexible apparatus to match easier and more economically the networks to the users' service requirements.
Furthermore, the providers prefer apparatus which can be completely and easily managed by network management systems.
Generally, a telecommunications apparatus is of modular type and comprises several boards; each board has its own function; the purchaser of the apparatus decides also its “configuration”, namely which and how many boards are to be inserted. For example, if the apparatus should be initially able to manage 256 SDH flows at 155 Mbit/sec, it comprises a proper number of boards to comply with such requirements. If, after some years, the requirements are changed and it is necessary for example to manage 16 SDH flows at 155 Mbit/sec and 256 SDH flows at 622 Mbit/sec, some of these boards are removed and discarded (as they are no more useful) and new boards are inserted for the new requirements. Of course, such a situation is not appreciated by the providers.
Similar problems occur even if there is the need to re-configure the network without increasing the traffic management capacity of apparatus.